Tonight we assisted a migrant vessel: 70 people, including 10 children, who were struggling with the 2 meter high waves on an unseaworthy wooden boat.

After the people in distress first spotted a Dutch freighter on the horizon, they changed course to follow this boat. However, the freighter was not heading towards Europe, but towards Tunisia!

After we made a distress call and alerted the authorities, the freighter finally received official instructions to stop and halted its journey. The migrant vessel with the 70 people also stopped. Only now we were able to hand out life jackets and drinking water to the people and assess the situation.

Two hours later came the relieving moment: a boat from the Italian coastguard arrived and picked up all the people.